Debian dist-upgrade on B2 & B3

[shadowbox]

Are there step-by-step semi-newbie friendly instructions on how to perform an upgrade to Jessie on B2 hardware?

(I don't use anything Bubba-specific other than the hardware)

[MouettE]

You can try these steps but there is no warranty that it will work on your configuration. Without a serial connection you will probably need to troubleshoot your configuration from a rescue stick in case you b2 doesn't boot anymore.

That being steps here are the steps you should take:

• First update the file /etc/apt/sources.list to enable official debian jessie repositories (both master and security).
• Remove any supplementary apt repositories (including those under /etc/apt/sources.list.d)
• Download and install the excito release package to enable the excito jessie repository:

  Code: Select all

  wget http://repo.excito.org/excito-release-jessie.deb
  dpkg -i excito-release-jessie.deb
  

• Review and remove previous excito utility packages to avoid conflicts:

  Code: Select all

  dpkg -l | awk '{print $2}' | grep ^bubba-
  dpkg -l | awk '{print $2}' | grep ^bubba- | xargs apt-get -y purge
  

• Do the upgrade (light some candles and grab a cup of coffee ; if you have errors during the ugprade, post the result here and do not restart your b2):

  Code: Select all

  apt-get update
  apt-get dist-ugprade
  

• Check that the installed kernel is one of the 3.18 series (3.18.24-1 as of this post):

  Code: Select all

  # dpkg -l bubba3-kernel
  Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
  | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
  |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
  ||/ Name           Version      Architecture Description
  +++-==============-============-============-=================================
  ii  bubba3-kernel  1:3.18.24-1  armel        The linux kernel for the Excito p
  

• If not install it manually (apt-get install bubba3-kernel)
• Install the b3-utils package for hardware userland support tools:

  Code: Select all

  apt-get install b3-utils
  

• If everything went smoothly, you can try to restart your b2 and hope for the best !

[shadowbox]

Thanks for the step-by-step. I might work up the courage over Thanksgiving (next weekend). Or maybe Christmas when I have some serious time to recovery.

[and hopefully someone else reports success by then )

[beaufils]

I would like to move my b3 (wheezy) to jessie.

I just found your github repositories (https://github.com/Excito/).

What is the "good" way to upgrade (or reinstall to get plain jessie box) ?

Do I need to upgrade U-Boot first anyway ?

[MouettE]

I would like to move my b3 (wheezy) to jessie.

I just found your github repositories (https://github.com/Excito/).

What is the "good" way to upgrade (or reinstall to get plain jessie box) ?

I will release the jessie image and installer in a few days. The best way would be to reinstall your b3 using it. You will be able to keep your existing data if it's on a different partition on the drive.

Do I need to upgrade U-Boot first anyway ?

No, the image will be compatible with the old U-Boot.

[beaufils]

I will release the jessie image and installer in a few days. The best way would be to reinstall your b3 using it.

I will thus wait and test it as soon as you release it.

Where we will you announce the release so that I do not miss it?

Is the reinstalling process documented somewhere? Will it be the same as the one documented on the wiki (http://wiki.excito.com/w/index.php?titl ... a2_/_B3#B3)?

What kernel version are you using (I did not check all your git repos yet)?

You will be able to keep your existing data if it's on a different partition on the drive.

Since I did almost not change the box configuration, most of data are on the /home (mounted from /dev/mapper/bubba-storage volume), is it what you mean?

No, the image will be compatible with the old U-Boot.

I am curious to know how you are doing this, I thought there was some incompatibilities between recent kernel and that version of U-Boot.

Anyway, thank you for your support and your work (I really like the b3 box and did not found anything with equivalent hardware features: since b3 still being on squeeze is not serious for a box connected to the Internet, I am on the way to duplicate its services on a simple Raspberry Pi 2 with external hard drive, but this is not as good as the b3 and really would like to keep it).

Just for the sake of curiosity: how are you related with the "new" excito owner?

[MouettE]

Where we will you announce the release so that I do not miss it?

Right here in a few minutes

Is the reinstalling process documented somewhere? Will it be the same as the one documented on the wiki (http://wiki.excito.com/w/index.php?titl ... a2_/_B3#B3)?

It will be documented here for now

What kernel version are you using (I did not check all your git repos yet)?

LTS 3.18

Since I did almost not change the box configuration, most of data are on the /home (mounted from /dev/mapper/bubba-storage volume), is it what you mean?

Yes

I am curious to know how you are doing this, I thought there was some incompatibilities between recent kernel and that version of U-Boot.

There are numerous posts here on this subject but basically there is indeed a bug but there is a workaround described here and it's implemented in both kernel package and install/rescue system.

Just for the sake of curiosity: how are you related with the "new" excito owner?

The founder is a very good friend of mine and I happen to help them on projects from time to time. It's me who convinced them to buy the remaining stock and excito brand.

[stompertje]

I'm very interested in using Jessie, but I didn't see any announcement of an available image appear. Is your image available somewhere? Would love to use it for my second B3!

Thanks in advance!

[beaufils]

Everything about Jessie and B3 is avalaible here thanks to MouettE great work : viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5871

[stompertje]

Great, I somehow missed that one. Thanks!